kapiti island trip

We finally made it to Kapiti Island.

....Finally...

as in I had one place I really wanted to visit on my list of "MUST DO BEFORE WE LEAVE NZ" I figured one place was a reasonable goal. I also say finally because my friend Susan and I had been talking about doing this for months, and my ability to book a trip was a bit lack luster. But it was lovely.

The native birds come right up to you

.
We went for a guided walk and learned all about the plants, Maori history, animal life, and DOC projects.


There were paths by the sea...

and through the grassy flat lands....And up through the forested steep hills...
And plenty of places to just sit and wait for the birds to come and share some space with you...
The younger set did get a tad restless of sitting and waiting for birds to dazzle them, so we got out my camera and played around with its high burst setting. I had no idea how fun this can be!




We finished up the day playing in the warm sea water.
It has been said that once, in the not so distant past, the water between the island and the mainland -- all 5 km -- was so full of whales that it would keep you up at night!
And the trees were in bloom!
Better still we got to share the experience with our dear friend from Australia!

Stream walk

While our friend Emma was here, we tried to fit in as much wonderful Wellington adventure between my 6 am training and 5 pm training. One day we took her through the Korokoro stream area of Belmont Park. It is really our backyard, and super cool.

A start is looking out at the harbour from the water tower.

First we went down to the falls and checked out the wildlife behind the dam

Trav and Emma were rather into their geometric algebra discussions -- I got a bit a lost somewhere towards the start of them:)





Then we decided to take a shortcut and follow the stream. We knew the stream was easier than going off the trail and it ends up at the bottom of the farm. It was probably less than a km, but it sure was a long km of good fun.

Makara with Emma!

We also took our friend Emma to Makara beach. This is a very rocky beach with lots and lots of wind. I sometimes am underwhelmed by it, and then when I look at the photos I remember how much I love it.
We walked up along int he interior track this time... as many trails are here, it was rather steep!


A new wind farm is installed now... this was the only one we could see from the trail...View back to the beach/car park.


The top of the headland...A perfect place to talk math while checking out the Cook Straight and the South Island just beyond that.

Kaitoke

We also went up to Kaitoke for a walk with our visiting friend Emma recently.
There are few places left near here with big trees. Oh how I love and miss big trees.

I love this place .. it is like a NZ version of the mossy forests I grew up in back in Oregon
Then it was time for lunch

Which always leads to wading and playing in the water... just like any school trip as a kid where they let us eat by the water and then tried, with little success, to keep us out of it.

sick sick sick

As if the swine flu wasn't enough. Nor was the second flu I had. No I had to get another virus, one that sent me to bed for nearly 3 weeks, and then reduced me to a fatigued pile of tears after four hours of work each day. Two weeks of 4 hour days four days a week, and I could just barely manage to go back to full time work.
One day in there I took a vacation from my bed and went for a ten minute walk on the beach at the bottom of our hill. There was a wee fort someone had built and I just wanted to curl in and hid away for a bit.



And a tree that I even stopped to photograph... too bad I didn't remember it when we were racing the pair along the beach and we nearly SMASHED into it a few weeks later. Oops. Driving backwards in a boat is not my forte.

I was one sick girl. Fever, infection, glassy eyes, but I was most impressed with my neck. Do notice the swollen neck. My lymph nodes took almost 5 weeks to return to normal!